Fate of Newark’s $10M ‘community schools’ program is in doubt

Happy New Year! Chalkbeat Newark's weekly newsletter is back. Today, read about the future of a high-profile education program in Newark, magnet school news, and more.

— Patrick Wall, senior reporter

The big story

It was a $10 million experiment designed to prove that struggling schools can flourish if given the proper support.

Launched in 2015, Newark’s “South Ward Community Schools Initiative” sent extra staffers and social services to five schools in that impoverished part of the city. It was a major victory for Mayor Ras Baraka, who had long championed the approach and convinced the state-appointed superintendent to fund it.

But now, just three years later, Newark’s new superintendent is casting doubt on the program.

“I have zero student achievement. I have poor attendance. And I have a lot of people who are getting money in their wallets,” Superintendent Roger León said last month.

The program’s early results don’t look great. And even supporters say it got off to a rocky start.

Privately, León has said he wants to develop a new community-schools program modeled on an earlier effort known as the “Global Village.” Now, he is facing calls to share those plans with the public.